The Business Standard reports with gold prices setting new record highs every alternate day, jewellery makers are adopting various methods to minimise its use in diamond jewellery without compromising look and feel. While many have increased mechanisation and reduced manufacturing of hand-made jewellery, others are replacing gold’s weight with diamond to keep investors’ interest intact. Another option is using silver with rhodium plating. Ideally, gold content in diamond jewellery should be 35% in terms of its weight. But, many jewellers have reduced gold content massively in the first half of the calendar year to keep the prices down.

Chinese state-owned energy giant China Power Investment Corporation plans to invest six billion dollars to develop bauxite production in Guinea, the world's largest exporter of the main source of aluminium, a senior executive said here Saturday.

The young miners descend on rickety ladders made of branches into the makeshift coal mines dotting Jaintia Hills in northeast India, scrambling sideways into “rat hole” shafts so small that even kneeling becomes impossible. Lying horizontally, they hack away with picks and their bare hands: Human labor here is far cheaper than machines. Many wear flip-flops and shorts, their faces and lungs blackened by coal. None has a helmet. Two hours of grinding work fills a cart half the size of a coffin that they drag back, crouching, to the mine mouth, where a clerk credits their work. Most earn a dollar or two an hour.

Caledonia Mining, which owns Blanket Mine near Gwanda, on Friday said Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere acted outside his ambit in asking the ministry of mines to cancel the company’s operating licence. The company noted that the mine was operating normally. The move follows reports that Kasukuwere had rejected various foreign-owned companies plans for “indigenising” their operations in the country, or transferring at least 51% ownership to locals. The news knocked 17% of Caledonia’s share price on the TSX, which fell to C$0,075 by close of trade on Friday.

Australia's Fortescue Metals, barely four year after starting commercial mining, said on Friday its year-on-year net profit surged 76% to just over $1 billion driven by resilient demand from China. Shipments by the world's number four exporter rose only slightly to 40 million tonnes, but the price it achieved jumped 68%. BHP Billiton, the world most valuable miner, is set to report a record $22 billion in annual profit on Wednesday thanks in large part to its iron business. The stellar numbers come as global blast furnace growth over the next five years is predicted to rise by a staggering 300 million tonnes as China's construction boom continues unabated. On top of that India's iron ore exports could halve over the same period further bolstering prices that in percentage terms have outclassed even that of gold as the world economy recovered post the 2008 collapse.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, coal production will fall 1.7% in 2011 hampered by widespread flooding in the west of the country. It is a steeper decline than previously forecast and the agency also predicts a further decline next year. Nevertheless, strong demand from Asia and Europe for steam and metallurgical coal has pushed US coal exports up 35% in the first half of the year and should reach above 100 million tons by year’s end, the highest level in nearly 20 years. Global coal consumption advanced 7.6% last year and at a faster pace than crude oil, natural gas and nuclear, according to statistics published by oil giant BP. Coal now accounts for 30% of global energy use, the highest since 1970.

Barrons.com takes a look at the stock portfolio of Ron Paul, presidential candidate and dollar-doom-and-gloom prophet, in its Saturday edition.

Gold reached another peak in Saturday trading in India, the world's largest consumer of the precious metal, and is now within reach of the psychologically important level of 30,000 rupees. Bullion hit an all time record on Friday in New York and is already up more than 30% in 2011, after a decade of annual gains. India's imports could hit a record high of 1,000 tons this year the president of the Bombay Bullion Association told reporters at a major gold conference in Kovalam in south India, but others struck a more cautious note with Scotia Mocatta, a leading Asian precious metal trader, saying imports could fall 20% as higher prices scare of retail buyers. Consumption in India last year drove Indian bullion imports to the highest ever at 958 tons, according to the World Gold Council.

Finland's Talvivaara missed Q2 earnings expectations and produced 3,951 tonnes of nickel in the quarter adding that its nickel output for the year will be towards the lower end of its 22,000 to 28,000 tons guidance. The miner warned that the short term outlook for nickel – which has declined to its lowest level in 2011 at around USD 21,000 per tonne – is uncertain and volatility across the base metals complex is likely to remain high. On the other hand, the global nickel market has remained in a deficit throughout the first half of the year with LME nickel stocks currently around their lowest levels since early 2009.